Methods, systems, and products for indicating receipt of electronic mail

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for delivering an indication of an email message&#39;s arrival. The email message is received and identifies at least an addressee. The addressee is looked up in a database that associates multiple addressees to a shared Internet Protocol address. The shared Internet Protocol address is retrieved and a message is sent to the shared Internet Protocol address. The message identifies the addressee of the email message and includes instructions for indicating arrival of the message at the addressee.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.09/963,483, filed Sep. 27, 2001, now issued as U.S. Pat. 7,076,529, andincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to data and telecommunicationsnetworks and more particularly to an advanced intelligent networkservice providing electronic mail notification.

2. Background of the Invention

Electronic mail (email) has become a very important means ofcommunication in the homes of many people. Typically, email users in ahome may share one or more computer systems which may or may not beconnected a network in an “always on” fashion. In such multi-userenvironments, there is no convenient method for a typical user to benotified of the arrival of a new email message without the user firstlogging on to the computer system and then checking his or her inbox fornew messages. Even when the computer is connected to an “always on”communications network, there is no convenient means for individuallyalerting a user when a message has been received for that particularuser.

Because of the lack of a convenient email notification system, theburden is on the user to actively check for the arrival ofemail—requiring the user to boot up the computer and activate a networkcommunications session. One problem with the conventional model forchecking email arises when a user is expecting an email message from aspecific sender, but has only a limited amount of time for accessing thecomputer or network needed for logging on to determine whether or notthe message has arrived. In this case, the user must constantly checkhis or her inbox to see if the message has arrived, and each time, thereis no way of knowing whether or not that message or any messages havebeen received. Even when the user is fortunate enough to have a sharedalways-on environment (e.g., an always on broadband internet applianceshared by members of a family), there is still no convenient, sharedinterface by which to notify all members of email arrival. A needtherefor exists for systems and methods for notifying a user that anemail message has arrived without requiring access to the computer orthe communications network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention comprises systems and methods for delivering anotification of an email arrival to one or more customer premisesequipment to alert users that an email has been received at a mailserver. The systems and methods comprise receiving a message on anapplication server where the message includes at least an emailaddressee. The application server uses the email addressee to lookup asubscriber's directory number or an internet protocol address and username associated with the email addressee. Based at least in part on thisinformation, the application server sends an instruction a servicecontrol point (if the lookup returns a directory number) or to theinternet protocol address (if the lookup returns such an address). Ifthe instruction is sent to a service control point, then the servicecontrol point causes an advanced intelligent node to initiate a call tothe subscriber directory number and send a signal to the telephonecustomer premises equipment. If the instruction is sent to the internetprotocol address, then a network node associated with the internetprotocol address displays a notification alerting the user that emailhas arrived on a mail server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the presentinvention wherein a user is alerted via a telephone ringing pattern or acaller identification display device attached to the user's telephoneline (subscriber line).

FIGS. 1A-1D show alternative display messages which may be used indifferent embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of an alternative embodiment of thepresent invention wherein the user is alerted via a telephone ringingpattern or a caller identification display device attached to the user'stelephone line (subscriber line).

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of an alternative embodiment of thepresent invention wherein the user is alerted via a telephone ringingpattern or a caller identification display device attached to the user'stelephone line (subscriber line), or via a text-to-voice announcement.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a typical broadband appliancedisplaying an email notification according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of an alternative embodiment of thepresent invention wherein the user is alerted via a broadband appliance.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides systems and methods for individuallyalerting users in a shared environment when an email message has beenreceived on a mail host for retrieval by a particular user. In anembodiment of the present invention, the notification may be providedusing the advanced intelligent network (AIN) of the public switchedtelephone network (PSTN). Users may be notified of email arrival viaeither a telephone alert or a caller identification (caller-id) displaydevice. In another embodiment of the present invention, the notificationmay be provided by a message sent to an always-on broadband appliance inthe users' home. In this embodiment, the broadband appliance is bedirected to display an indicator identifying the recipient's name.Further information can also be indicated, e.g., the priority of themessage, the date/time stamp for the message, and so on.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention wherein theuser is alerted via the PSTN. In this embodiment, when an email arrivesat subscriber 10's mail server 20, the message is automaticallyforwarded to application server 30 to initiate telephonic notificationto subscriber 10. Application server 30 sends a message to servicecontrol point (SCP) 40, which is an AIN node. SCP 40 instructs thesubscriber's service switching point (SSP) 44 to deliver the emailnotification to subscriber 10's telephone 12 and/or caller-id device 14.

The following sections describe the configuration and operation of anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Mail and Application Server Configuration

Mail server 20 may be any computer system adapted to send and receiveemail via network 50. Network 50 may be the well-known Internet, asshown in FIG. 1, or may be some other communications network. Network 50can be coupled to one or more Internet Service Providers (ISP) such asISP 51 and ISP 52. If mail server 20 is a “standalone” server, i.e., notcapable of direct communication with SCP 40, the subscriber or an emailadministrator may setup mail server 20 to forward inbound messages toapplication server 30. If mail server 20 and application server 30 arethe same system, there is no need to forward the inbound messages asthey would be received on the same server system. Further, subscriber 10may configure mail server 20 with one or more filters to identifyspecific email messages for which notification according to the presentinvention is to be presented. For example, subscriber 10 may wish onlyemail from a particular individual to initiate the special notificationprocess. Alternatively, subscriber 10 may setup mail server 20 toprovide alerts only for email messages having a high prioritydesignation, e.g., messages marked “urgent.”

Application server 30 comprises computer programming logic and data usedto correlate the subscriber's email address to the subscriber'stelephone number. In one embodiment, application server 30 has a list ordatabase of subscriber email addresses and associated directory numbers(DN) identifying the telephone line to be used to notify the subscriber.As described above, because telephone lines within a household aretypically shared systems, the present invention may include thecapability to provide distinct notification for different emailaddresses associated with a single DN. For example, subscriber 10'shousehold can comprise three individuals, each having his or her ownemail address: “jane.doe@address1.com” (used by Jane)“robert.doe@address2.com” (used by Bob) and “video-wiz@address3.com”(used by Jr.) where address1-address3 may or may not be the same domainnames. Subscriber 10's wireline DN can be, for example, “111-222-3333.”In this case, application server 30 may comprise a table or other datastructure associating the email addresses with the DN. An example ofsuch a data structure is shown in Table 1, below:

TABLE 1 Email Address DN jane.doe@address1.com 111-222-3333robert.doe@address2.com 111-222-3333 video-wiz@address3.com 111-222-3333aaa.bbb@address4.net 444-555-6666 . . . . . .

In alternative embodiments, application server 30 may include additionalinformation. For example, server 30 may associate the email addresseswith their respective user names and the DN as shown in Table 2, below.The user name information may used as part of the caller-id display textto specifically identify the email recipient in subscriber 10'shousehold.

TABLE 2 Email Address DN User Name jane.doe@address1.com 111-222-3333Jane robert.doe@address2.com 111-222-3333 Bob video-wiz@address3.com111-222-3333 Jr. aaa.bbb@address4.net 444-555-6666 James . . . . . . . ..

In another alternative embodiment, application server 30 may includedistinctive ring tones selected by each user in subscriber 10'shousehold as shown in Table 3. The ring tone (A, B, C, etc.) indicatesthe style of audible alarm that telephone 12 will issue, e.g., a shortring plus a long ring, three short rings, and so on. This embodiment maybe useful for subscribers that do not have a caller-id display device.In this case, household members hearing the distinctive ring oftelephone 12 will be able to identify the intended recipient of thenotification.

TABLE 3 Email Address DN Ring Tone jane.doe@address1.com 111-222-3333 Arobert.doe@address2.com 111-222-3333 B video-wiz@address3.com111-222-3333 C aaa.bbb@address4.net 444-555-6666 B . . . . . . . . .

In still another alternative embodiment, application server 30 mayinclude both the user name information and the distinctive ringidentification associated with each email address as shown in Table 4.This embodiment may be used to provide both audible and text-based emailnotification to subscriber 10's household.

TABLE 4 Email Address DN User Name Ring Tone jane.doe@address1.com111-222-3333 Jane A robert.doe@address2.com 111-222-3333 Bob Bvideo-wiz@address3.com 111-222-3333 Jr. C aaa.bbb@address4.net444-555-6666 James B . . . . . . . . . . . .

In each case, the email address is used by application server 30 tolookup the recipient's DN and the other information, if provided. The DNand auxiliary information is then provided to and used by SCP 40 asdescribed in the next section.

In an alternative embodiment, application server 30 and mail server 20may be the same system. That is, if mail server 20 is a system havingauthorization to communicate directly with the AIN nodes, such as asystem operated by a telephone company (telco), it may perform any ofthe functions described herein in connection with application server 30.FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing how this embodiment can beimplemented. In FIG. 2, mail and application server 35 serves thefunction of receiving email addressed to subscriber 10 as well as thefunction of sending a message to SCP 40.

SCP Configuration and Operation

SCP 40 may be configured to receive information from application server30 via a data communications network using any suitable networkprotocol. In one embodiment, the network uses the well-knowntransmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) protocol. SCP40 comprises an email notification application for receiving messagesfrom application server 30. Upon receipt of a message, SCP 40 usessignaling network 42 to instruct the subscriber's service switchingpoint (SSP) 44 to provide the notification to the subscriber's telephoneor caller-id display device. Signaling network 42 may comprise thewell-known Common Channel Signaling System Number 7 (SS7) as shown inFIG. 1, or alternatively, some other signaling network protocol.

SCP 40 is also equipped with a data communications channel connected tonetwork link 46. Network link 46 may use the well-known TCP/IP networkprotocol or some other communications protocol. Application server 30(or combined mail and application server 35 in FIG. 2) communicate withSCP 40 via network link 46. Secure network 48 is shown to illustratethat in a typical environment, AIN elements (SCPs, SSP, etc.) areprotected by security devices such as, e.g., firewall 53. as would beapparent to those skilled in the art, the security devices are notnecessary for the operation of the present invention.

Exemplary Embodiments of the Present Invention

In this example, application server 30 includes subscriber data as shownin Table 4, above. That is, the application server comprises DN,username and distinctive ringing data. This example will show how thesystem operates to notify different users within subscriber 10'shousehold. The members in that household comprise Robert Doe, Sr., JaneDoe, and Robert Doe, Jr and the DN for subscriber 10's home wireline 16is 111-222-3333. Each member of subscriber 10's household has their ownemail address as shown in Table 4, and they receive email service fromone or more mail servers, such as mail server 20, configured to forwardarriving email messages for these users to application server 30.

When user 60 sends an email addressed to an email address for one of themembers of subscriber 10's household (for example,robert.doe@address2.com), the email is routed over network 50 to themember's mail server. The mail server then forwards the email toapplication server 30. In embodiments of the present invention, the mailserver may send a new email or other type of message to applicationserver 30. In such embodiments, the new message comprises at least theaddressee information from user 60's email. The new message may alsocomprise additional information, including, for example, the sender'sname, the message subject, the date and time, etc.

When application server 30 receives the forwarded email message (or thenew message) from mail server 20, it looks up the addressee's emailaddress in its database 32 to determine the subscriber's DN and otherinformation, if provided. In this example, application server 30identifies the DN as “111-222-333” by looking up the email address“robert.doe@address2.com” in database 32. Further, in this example, thelookup also returns the usemame “Bob” and the distinctive ring code “B”associated with this email address. Application server 30 then sends theinformation to SCP 40 (via network link 46). A service programmingapplication (SPA) on SCP 40 receives the message and causes SCP 40 toissue a signaling command to initiate a call to subscriber 10's wireline16.

In one embodiment, the SCP issues a Create_Call instruction according tothe well-known transaction capabilities application part (TCAP) protocolof SS7 signaling networks. The Create_Call message may include a calledparty number (CdPN) field set to the DN associated with the subscriber(in this example, the CdPN would be set to 1112223333).

Further, the Create_Call message may a calling party number (CgPN) setto an arbitrary set of digits to indicate the call is from the emailmessage notification system. For example, the CgPN field may be set toall zeroes (“0000000000”) or another string of digits. If, as in thisexample, the subscriber has caller-id device 14, the Create_Call messagemay include a Display Text field providing additional information. Forexample, the Display Text field may be set to “Email for <username>”where username is information provided by application server 30. In thisexample, the Display Text field data may be set to “Email for Bob.” Asknown in the art, the display text data may be provided by the SCP aftera subsequent CNAM query by SSP 44. Finally, the Create_Call message mayinclude a Controlling Leg Treatment field set to a code indicating thedistinctive ring pattern for the call. In this example, the field wouldbe set such that ring pattern “B” (associated with Bob) would be used.Even in embodiments where the individual users of a household may notselect individual distinctive ring patterns, the system and method ofthe present invention may, optionally, provide a distinctive ring todifferentiate between regular telephone calls and email notificationcalls.

When SSP 44 receives the instruction from SCP 40, it attempts a call tosubscriber 10's wireline 16. SSP 44 uses the information provided in theCreate_Call message to determine which line to call and to identify theproper ringing pattern and display information. In this example,telephone 12 would ring for a predetermined number of rings using ringpattern “B” and display area 15 on caller-id device 14 would display amessage as shown in FIG. 1A.

The caller-id display device can be used to provide notification ofemail in a variety of alternative formats according to the presentinvention. For example, application server 30 may be configured toprovide a code indicating the username instead of the text-based nameused in the previous example. In this case, the code may identify eachmember of the household (e.g., the code “1111111111” may indicate Jane,“2222222222” may indicate Bob, and so on). In this embodiment, SCP 40may use this code in the CgPN field, and may include some other messagein the Display text field such as the sender's email address. Forexample, display area 15 may present a message as shown in FIG. 1B. Inanother embodiment, the subscribers may configure application server 30with additional information, such as a code to identify the sender of anemail. For example, the sender's email address may be “user@mailaddr”and the assigned code may be “1.” In this case, application server 30would inform SCP 40 that the sender's code is “1” and SCP 40 wouldinsert the digits “0000000001” into the CgPN field. The resultingdisplayed message may be as shown in FIG. 1C. FIG. 1D shows anotherexample of the message displayed on caller-id device 14. In thisexample, the CgPN is used to indicate the recipient and the Display Textis used to indicate the subject of the email message.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a service node (SN) mayused to complete the call to the subscriber. For example, as shown inFIG. 3, SN 49 may be used to initiate the call to subscriber 10'swireline 16. In this embodiment, SCP 40 sends a message to SN 49providing the subscriber's DN and SN 49 initiates the call as it wouldany other call. Although shown connected to SSP 44 in FIG. 3, SN 49 neednot be connected to the same SSP as the subscriber. In this embodiment,when SN 49 calls wireline 16, the CgPN is that of SN 49. When the callreaches subscriber 10's SSP (SSP 44), a termination attempt trigger(TAT) on wireline 16 signals SSP 44 to issue a TCAP query to SCP 40. Inresponse to the query, SCP 40 recognizes the CgPN as the DN for SN 49.SCP 40 uses this information, together with the CdPN (i.e., subscriber10's DN) to lookup the information last provided to it by applicationserver 30. This information is then provided in a TCAP response to SSP44 which then provides the information in the appropriate format to thesubscriber 10, as described above.

In another embodiment of the present invention, SN 49 may be equippedwith a text-to-spoken language system. In this embodiment, SCP 40 canprovide all of the information related to the email message directly toSN 49. SN 49 can then call subscriber 10 and play an announcement suchas “Bob has received an email from user@emailaddr.”

Embodiments Related to Broadband Shared Appliances

FIG. 4 illustrates a shared broadband appliance which may be used in asubscriber's home. Such a device may be used to provide a variety ofservices including, but not limited to, email messaging, voice calls,web-casting (i.e., broadcasts provided via the Internet), web browsing,and so on. FIG. 5 shows a network architecture in which such a broadbandappliance may be supported. Broadband appliance 400 is linked tosoftswitch 544. This connectivity may or may not be made via aresidential gateway (RGW), such as RGW 512 shown in FIG. 5. Whether ornot such a gateway is present is dependent upon the specific broadbandimplementation in subscriber 510's household.

In this embodiment, mail server 520 and application server 530 may beconfigured in the same manner as described above in conjunction withFIGS. 1-3. An exception in this embodiment, is that application server530 need not include subscriber 510's DN. Instead, application server530 is configured with an IP address associated with broadband appliance400 (or with RGW 512, if present). Using this information, Applicationserver 530 sends a message to broadband appliance 400 via softswitch544. The message instructs broadband appliance 400 to display an icon orother visual indicator that an email has been received at mail server520 for a particular user. Indicator 410, shown in FIG. 4, is an exampleof such an icon and indicates that “Dad” has new email. In preferredembodiments, a user may click on the icon or in some other area of thedisplay on broadband appliance 400 to retrieve additional informationsuch as, for example, the sender's email address, the date and time ofthe message, and the like.

The email notification system and method of the present invention can beused to provide notification to a user via distinctive ringing patterns,caller-id, a shared broadband internet appliance, a combination of thesedevices, and so on.

User Interface

The email notification systems and methods of the present invention maybe advantageously administered by subscribers using a web-basedinterface running on the application server. This interface provides ameans by which users can subscribe to the service via the web. The webinterface also allows users to specify where and how they want to benotified of email arrival, which may or may not be filtered.

The foregoing disclosure of the preferred embodiments of the presentinvention has been presented for purposes of illustration anddescription. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theinvention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations andmodifications of the embodiments described herein will be apparent toone of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. Thescope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appendedhereto, and by their equivalents.

Further, in describing representative embodiments of the presentinvention, the specification may have presented the method and/orprocess of the present invention as a particular sequence of steps.However, to the extent that the method or process does not rely on theparticular order of steps set forth herein, the method or process shouldnot be limited to the particular sequence of steps described. As one ofordinary skill in the art can appreciate, other sequences of steps maybe possible. Therefore, the particular order of the steps set forth inthe specification should not be construed as limitations on the claims.In addition, the claims directed to the methods and/or processes of thepresent invention are not limited to the performance of their steps inthe order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciatethat the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit andscope of the present invention.

1. A method for delivering an indication of an email message's arrival,said method comprising: receiving the email message identifying at leastan addressee; looking up the addressee in a database, the databaseassociating multiple addressees to a shared Internet Protocol address;retrieving the shared Internet Protocol address; sending a message tothe shared Internet Protocol address, the message identifying theaddressee of the email message, and the message including instructionsfor particularly indicating the arrival of the message to the addresseefrom amongst the multiple addressees sharing the Internet Protocoladdress; sending an email address of a sender of the email message;retrieving a distinctive ring tone associated with the addressee frommultiple ring tones associated with the shared Internet Protocoladdress, the distinctive ring tone selected by the addressee to providea distinctive notification despite different addressees associated withthe shared Internet Protocol address; and sending a signal to adirectory number associated with the addressee to provide thedistinctive notification of the email message's arrival.
 2. A methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising retrieving a user nameassociated with the addressee.
 3. A method according to claim 1, furthercomprising sending a priority associated with the email message.
 4. Amethod according to claim 1, further comprising sending a date ofreceipt of the email message.
 5. A method according to claim 1, furthercomprising sending a time of receipt of the email message.
 6. A methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising sending an email address of asender of the email message.
 7. A method according to claim 1, furthercomprising configuring a filter that identifies email messages for whicharrival is to be indicated.
 8. A method for delivering an indication ofan email message's arrival, said method comprising: receiving a messageaddressed to a shared Internet Protocol address that is shared amongstmultiple addressees, the message identifying an addressee of the emailmessage and including instructions for indicating arrival of the emailmessage to the addressee; causing a notification that indicates theemail message was received for the addressee; retrieving a distinctivering tone associated with the addressee from multiple ring tonesassociated with the shared Internet Protocol address, the distinctivering tone selected by the addressee to provide a distinctivenotification despite different addressees associated with the sharedInternet Protocol address; and sending a signal to a directory numberassociated with the addressee to provide the distinctive notification ofthe email message's arrival.
 9. A method according to claim 8, furthercomprising receiving a user name associated with the addressee.
 10. Amethod according to claim 9, further comprising causing display of anicon associated with the user name.
 11. A method according to claim 8,further comprising receiving a priority associated with the emailmessage.
 12. A method according to claim 8, further comprising receivinga date of receipt of the email message.
 13. A method according to claim8, further comprising receiving a time of receipt of the email message.14. A method according to claim 8, further comprising receiving an emailaddress of a sender of the email message.
 15. A system for delivering anindication of an email message's arrival, said system comprising: meansfor receiving the email message identifying at least an addressee, meansfor looking up the addressee and associating multiple addressees to ashared Internet Protocol address, means for retrieving the sharedInternet Protocol address, means for sending a message to the sharedInternet Protocol address, the message identifying the addressee of theemail message and including instructions for particularly indicatingarrival of the message to the addressee from amongst the multipleaddressees sharing the Internet Protocol address, means for sending anemail address of a sender of the email message, means for retrieving adistinctive ring tone associated with the addressee from multiple ringtones associated with the shared Internet Protocol address, thedistinctive ring tone selected by the addressee to provide a distinctivenotification despite different addressees associated with the sharedInternet Protocol address, and means for sending a signal to a directorynumber associated with the addressee to provide the distinctivenotification of the email message's arrival.
 16. A system according toclaim 15, further comprising means for retrieving a user name associatedwith the addressee.
 17. A system according to claim 15, furthercomprising means for sending a priority associated with the emailmessage.
 18. A system according to claim 15, further comprising meansfor sending a date of receipt of the email message.
 19. A systemaccording to claim 15, further comprising means for sending a time ofreceipt of the email message.